Prisons are something that need deeper thinking of its need and value. I’ve thought many times about prisons and how it should be and how to deal with prisoners and what is its ultimate purpose?
Prison is not always physical, sometimes, it can be psychic for some people who are prisoned inside and idea or way of thinking.
There are many angles to look at prisons from and we will try to talk about few of them here
- Some of us will see the prison as the place we use to get rid off the bad people who make our life harder. George Carlin once talked about prisons in his amazing way of speaking and he -as always- was funny and logical in the same time 🙂
From that point of view, Prisons are mere a fenced place to keep some people within its fence for a while. And that angle of view is very shallow and deliver nothing good.
- Others will say that prison is a place to punish some people for the problems they did in the society. So, prisons must be harsh and have difficulties in usual needs in life. That’s because of the criminals who commit crimes. Criminals committed crimes so they must be held in prisons and get punished for what they did. We can’t make prisons entertaining for the prisoners. There are many free people living in an enormous struggle for food. So, we can’t let free people who did nothing bad struggle living because they are homeless or poor and give criminals a roof and food.
Life in prison won’t differ a lot from what you will watch in this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZlkoVTZcEM
- There are other types of prisons where prisoners are tortured constantly for information or to please the warden. There are the politic prisons for the people who speak harmful politics from the opinions of the government. This kind of prisons shouldn’t exist at all. Expressing a thought should never be a crime and must be replied with another thought.
I have my own view of prisons and I say prisons must have an ultimate purpose that is beneficial to society.
- Bad people and criminals will always exist and we have to come with a way to minimize their numbers. So, there are two kinds of criminals, the ones we caught and the ones we didn’t. So, it would be great to make a change to the ones we have in custody.
- The ones we have in custody are already living in the prisons. So, life in prisons should be the kind that change people for the sake of the whole society. Millions already live in prisons and it’s not about making their life hard or unfavourable, it’s about changing their thoughts and hearts to make them better persons who won’t commit crimes again. So, we should change the way we run prisons.
- If we are going to collect criminals and put them together is a prison without any trials to correct their faulty thoughts and never trying to teach them to live peacefully, prisoners will get out just exactly as they get in. We will be keeping them away for a while then send them back to commit more crimes with one difference, we gave them more experience in escaping from pursuits and new ways to commit crimes from their companions inside prisons. 🙂
- Life in prison now is a great way to learn to be a criminal 🙂 when it should learn criminals to live peacefully within society without committing anymore crimes.
- Some countries in Europe are actually aware about that and the prison they built make the life in prison more beneficial to the society. They have libraries and many activities to take criminals in and let good persons out. Life in prison should change criminals to be better people who can do good things in life after getting out.
- Personally, I think crimes within prison fences are more than outside the fence 🙁
- I remember a movie for Denzel Washington which he felt freedom when he got in prison 🙂
What do you think? Should it stay the same? Or should we teach prisoners to be good persons?
While I do think rehabbing criminals is generally a good idea, how would prisons go about doing this? Would they hand out free education? One way to do it would be to offer rehab but make them work for it. This can be within charities and other things beneficial to the public. Nothing should come free, and I think this would be a great lesson for them to learn. Prison should definitely be harder than living in the real world. I’m not talking about starving criminals, but they should have to work for food and other basic needs just like the rest of society in my opinion. What do you think?
I think that life in prison should be hard, but with putting in mind the true purpose of prisons. We can’t provide everything for prisoners while they are resting. we must force them to work hard for their living while trying to fix their thoughts for the sake of the society when they get out.
Very informative perspective on prisons. I watched the Predators and Prey video half way through. I think it’s a good idea for prisoners who serve shorter sentences to be rehabilitated because someday they will return to society. However, once a criminal always a criminal. It’s likely that they will return to prison within a few years so not sure entirely about it.
Yes, Criminal is a criminal and we have to decrease the number and violence of crimes so, should try to change the ones in custody and prevent them from committing more crimes when they get out.
Personally, I feel that if there is a system in place somewhere in the world that works, then other countries should follow suite. I don’t think prison should be a joy ride or anything, and I think that they should learn responsibility while they are in there. They could have crops and farms for the ones who commit non-violent crimes, to cut down on cost. Those who are in for violent crimes could do something useful as well. I think they already do things at some of them though, or so I’ve heard. They need to do that sort of thing everywhere.
Liked your words. There are different types of crimes and criminals. So, I think a psychological evaluation should be done for every criminal and depending on that evaluation, we should come up with a how to deal with them.
This may be considered romantic talks, but I think we should try to do what’s good for the whole society.
I really enjoyed reading your post, but you also have to consider the outside world. I grew up in the ghetto or “Hood” as they call it. I can relate and understand to certain appreciation when it comes to these things. But you have to look at it from a different perspective, look at the world we live in… We have naked people on Tv in music video, unacceptable vulgar point of views in cartoons, movies, comedy, etc. I understand these people that go to prison had a choice and they have to pay for that bad choice, but just maybe its not the people thats sick, maybe its the environment (Outside World). Great Post, I really enjoyed reading it. Keep up the good work….
That’s what I say “the ones we caught” The ones we didn’t catch are the “Alphas criminals” the one who actually cause most of our problems.
There are many criminals we couldn’t catch and somehow the governments aren’t very interested to catch, for some reason 🙂
I agree with you. I am just trying to write what I could think of. Glad you shared your thoughts 🙂
This is an interesting website with a very accurate name, I agree with a lot of your views. Prisons at the moment aren’t worth much to be honest, they’re like pens to keep animals in and don’t do much for reforming the person. There was a comment that stated nothing should come for free, but I strongly disagree with such a statement. More things should be free, if they were, a lot of glaring issues like poverty, depression, and even many types of crimes would not exist.
People commit crimes because they are driven to, whether out of love, hate, ignorance, intolerance, religion or desperation. Unless you are mentally ill, you don’t commit crimes without reason. It is not human. Many crimes should not be crimes, especially when they involve only one person who does not hurt or steal from another, there are things in this world that people go to prison for when they just want to be free to do what they will. We do not live in a free world, no one is free, and because of this, it weighs down on our minds and consciousness and makes up behave in bad ways when we lack guidance.
Prisons should be better places, rehabilitation should be free, just like the love, attention, guidance and acceptance that many of those prisoners did not get as they grew into adults who would commit crimes. They should be punished and made to work for what they receive in prison to build character and humility, but the overall prison experience should be life changing for the better by any means, much like the armed services. You go into the Army, you come out stronger and sharper, unless of course you suffer from PTSD, and that’s a matter too big for me to discuss in this already lengthy comment. Good website. Needs more attention because humanity needs some help.
Thanks for your comment.
I agree with what you said. Many things should be free or at least very cheap that everybody can buy it. A minimum should be provided for all people. Everybody must have food, clothes, and place to live. And that must be done before starting to take a poor man to prison for stealing. He steals because he is desperate and have to live.
Prisons now are for some law-breakers “not all because some aren’t affected by the law” However, the law now doesn’t have the right priority. The law should be aiming for bad people and bad behaviour, but the law now has different priorities.
We need to grow up.